Florida Pros and Cons and Weather

Tropical Storm Andrea Cuts Through Florida.

The story here isn’t so much the problems this tropical storm caused for Florida. It was just a tropical storm and not a hurricane. Sure, some preparation had to be taken so that your outside stuff doesn’t get damaged or blown away, but storms like this are usually more of a minor inconvenience rather than a serious threat.

After living through many hurricane seasons, I learned not to get too worked up over tropical storms or even category 1 hurricanes. Even though most of the homes I lived in were very close to coastal waters that take the brunt of these weather systems, my homes were relatively up to date with hurricane protection.

No the real story here is the timing. Florida has enjoyed a record 7 years without a hurricane making landfall. If you moved to Florida in the last seven years and are still living there, you may have attended a “hurricane party” while Andrea blew through. Since threats like this storm tend to close businesses and schools (when in session), some people with unexpected time off have get-togethers with plenty of food and alcohol known as a hurricane party.

This year may be far different than the past seven however. The authorities have predicted a bad hurricane year. That in its self isn’t such a big deal to me either because they have done that in the past and have been completely wrong. What’s got my attention is that they made this prediction like they normally do before the yearly 6 month hurricane season started, and then just days after the official start of it on June 1rst, we already had a named tropical storm that is cut across Florida.

It’s unusual to have a storm like this so early in the season hit the state. It’s been reported that the water off Florida is a already warmer than usual, and hurricanes love warm water. During the record busy hurricane years of 2004-2005 I don’t remember storms starting this early in the season. We’ll have to see if this storm was just a freak event or if the prediction was correct and it’s going to be a bad season. New residents who have gotten used to calm seasons will learn how different living through a busy hurricane year is.

That brings me to the title of this post. While selling homes to people moving to Florida, many of them gave “the weather” as the main reason, particularly retirees. I found this to be true of most prospective and new residents, they had weather on the “pro” side of their Florida pros and cons of moving to Florida list. When selling that same home for them later so they can get out of Florida, the weather in Florida was now in the “cons” column. Tropical storms, hurricanes and a 6 month hurricane season every year was just part of their complaints about Florida’s weather.

Want to learn what living in Florida is really like and why so many people move there only to move out, before you spend a lot of time and money moving there? Is Florida really the best place to retire? Is Florida really the best place to live? Is “the weather” really a good reason to move to Florida?

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